Broke bare wire on Cool Rail on pickup, dead pickup

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bought a used SD Cool Rail on eBay, it worked ok but was weak, took it out tonight and saw the bare ground was hangin literally by a few strands, could not get any reading from the multimeter, took the tape off, all wire leads appear to be intact with tiny copper, tried a zillion ways to get a reading but since the bare is just a ground i assumed i could get a reading from the black lead, then touching the green to ground in the back of the pickup , then touch both with probe.....nuttin......so before i drive myself insane by trying to strip more of the bare wire and solder, can i solder a separate wire from the broke ground at the back of the pup and connect it to the green?......long i know hope you can understand...here are some pics....btw...ground is completely separated from back of pick up in seccond pic and attached in first...and last 2 are copper to leads are intact....:argh::argh::argh:....thanks

 

[AlexR]

Re: Broke bare wire on Cool Rail on pickup, dead pickup

The bare wire on duncans is simple a housing ground.....it doesn't connect in any way to the pickup coil wire. The green you can clearly see in your last pic on the LHS connecting to one of the coil wires (or more accurately thats where the coil wire should be attaching to the green). That goes all the way to the other end of the hookup wire with no break. You will need to check both coils......red/green and black/white to see if either/both have an open circuit so help solve the 'low/weak output' issue.

Plus strip a tiny bit of the plastic housing back so the bare is exposed again and solder a wire/bit of metal across to re-establish the chassis ground.

 

[spacebar]

Re: Broke bare wire on Cool Rail on pickup, dead pickup

The bare wire on duncans is simple a housing ground.....it doesn't connect in any way to the pickup coil wire. The green you can clearly see in your last pic on the LHS connecting to one of the coil wires (or more accurately thats where the coil wire should be attaching to the green). That goes all the way to the other end of the hookup wire with no break. You will need to check both coils......red/green and black/white to see if either/both have an open circuit so help solve the 'low/weak output' issue.

Plus strip a tiny bit of the plastic housing back so the bare is exposed again and solder a wire/bit of metal across to re-establish the chassis ground.

thanks.....i am not getting any readings with the ohm meter, thought it may be a ground issue, and the small copper to the leads are all intact.....so must i peel back the insulated wire and solder that? will that affect why i am not getting squat on my meter?....i tested a few other pickups thinking it was the meter, but it is fine, and i cant see how a pickup can produce zero readings......i cant get continuity either....i will give it a shot and throw it back in to see if it works at all now....will post back

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Broke bare wire on Cool Rail on pickup, dead pickup

If only the bare ground wire is damaged, this should not interrupt the audio signal output. (It may introduce some hum and/or handling noise.)

Take DC resistance meter readings between the black and white conductor ends, then, between the red and green. This should establish whether each coil is intact.

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Broke bare wire on Cool Rail on pickup, dead pickup

I once had a L'il series Stratocaster-sized 'bucker crap out on me. The cable and coils were fine. Turned out that one of the blades was not making sufficiently firm physical contact with the ceramic bar magnet. The solution involved glue and a clamp.

 

[spacebar]

Re: Broke bare wire on Cool Rail on pickup, dead pickup

weird...i just tried to get any readings and nuttin happens, not even a blip....so i turn on an amp, touch th etip and base to green and black, tap it with a metal slide and it comes thur the amp....i am going to throw it back in and see how it goes...for the $38 i paid for this it is taking up too much time and aggravation..:argh:

 

[spacebar]

Re: Broke bare wire on Cool Rail on pickup, dead pickup

:bigok:.... threw it on pickguard alone with a 500k cts volume pot and its working with decent volume and quiet no hum, soldered the bare wire back onto the back of the pickup ....i know the cool rails are known to be a bit low on volume, i may add a stk2 pickup with it to see how they sound together, dont know if i should use a 250k pot for tone or go with another 500k with a resistor??? suggestions

but still putting the meter on it shows absolutley nuthin...thanks for the help

 

[AlexR]

Re: Broke bare wire on Cool Rail on pickup, dead pickup

What setting do you have on your meter???

If you have it set for less ohms than what the pickup is then yes you will show nothing

 

[spacebar]

Re: Broke bare wire on Cool Rail on pickup, dead pickup

What setting do you have on your meter???

If you have it set for less ohms than what the pickup is then yes you will show nothing

20k...nuttin happnin there still

so i throw it back in the strat, then put the meter on the 1/4 plug, turn the 500k volume pot to 10, get nothing, then slowly turn the volume down to 3 it starts to read...goes up to 19.05 stops go to blank, i turn the meter up to the 2000k setting and proceed to turn the volume knob and it hits climbs to 521 then it dawns on me that it was reading the 500k pot not the pickup....lol:laughing:....im tried of messin with it, it sounds ok but anyone have a clue why is just wont read let me know......when i got it i think it read 14.6 or so??? cant remember